“My heart broke. When did we decide it was okay to pit each other’s struggles against each other? When did we decide it was okay to compare each other’s grief?”
‘She was struggling to feed her kids. ‘You can get another job, but you can’t get a life back. Quit whining and be thankful you’re not part of the death toll.’: Woman says ‘it’s okay to mourn and struggle with change’
‘Eh, it’s been rough, honestly.’ Our struggles are different. And we will likely never ask for help.’: Mom of special needs child explains what her ‘hard week’ looks like
“Our hard days look like night terrors, bed-wetting, and sleepless nights. The days are riddled with meltdowns over having to be outside where it’s too hot, too cold, too sunny, too many bugs or too ‘outsidey’. Seriously. We can’t make this stuff up.”
‘He’s the kid who never listens the first time. Or even the tenth. His heart breaks because he’s not always sure why what he’s doing is so wrong.’: Mom says her energetic son ‘needs you to hear him’
“He is smart as a whip, yet school isn’t always his jam. He’d rather talk about why Sally is giving away 24 of her apples instead of solving the story problems in math. He can read your emotions on your face, and will always know who is lonely on the playground.”
‘I was pregnant at only 17. In true Jerry Springer style, I married the childhood best friend of my baby’s daddy.’: Teen mom says she was ‘petrified but determined’ and ‘always knew’ she’d have the baby
“The news rocked my parents’ world. I was smart in school and dumb in love. I enrolled in community college, worked a full-time job and went to class at night. I married a man who had been my friend from the start. He too was at the hospital the night my daughter was born. When my daughter was 11, my husband adopted her. The paperwork was the thing that gave her his name, though she already had his heart.”
‘When I was 12 years old, my older sister died by suicide. She was my whole world. This year alone I’ve had over 20 suicide attempts.’
“I had Bell’s Palsy. I was severely bullied. I would go around at lunch asking to sit with people, and every group would tell me no. I would sit by the trashcans and get food thrown at me.”
‘I was a victim, but I am a survivor’: Woman’s miraculous journey from scarring physical abuse, to severe PTSD, to ‘hope and happiness’
“15 years after my trauma, I am still learning to love my body for what it is, scars and all. It has taken a long time for me to be comfortable showing them, but they are mine and they remind me how far I have come. Your trials in life will make or break you. I was a victim, but I am a survivor.”
